Thursday, 18 October 2012

Shown The Door...

Whilst nothing has been confirmed by the club to my knowledge, Rick Everitt used the Charlton Life forum yesterday to publicly announce that he has been sacked by Charlton. Sadly, the rumours have been circulating for a while, but it is still very sad that another true Charlton man has been shown the door. It's ironic that the club have timed his departure just before the 'Football For A Fiver' game this weekend, which was a scheme conceived by Rick Everitt.

One of the very first purchases I ever made from Charlton's club shop in late 94 was a copy of Rick's book 'Battle For The Valley' and it is truly inspiring stuff. It cannot be overplayed just how important that fight was in securing not only a return to The Valley but ensuring we all have a club to support today. In that respect, I will forever owe Rick and those that fought alongside him a huge debt of gratitude. If you've not read the book, you should do so.

I regularly see Rick milling about outside the Valley or in the East Stand on a matchday, and although I've never actually met him I always have a strong urge to walk up to him and shake his hand. I suppose I've never done it as he strikes me as the sort of chap who doesn't seek out adulation.

As many have commented already, it's hard to see this move in a positive light and yet again the new owners have come under scrutiny. Once again, I would suggest we won't get much of an explanation from the club any time soon. Perhaps this is quite simply a case of Rick Everitt being too strong a character to ever act as a 'yes man' in the new regime. This is business, after all, and if you don't 'shape up' you don't tend to last long.

I'll be honest, I did find it rather odd that there was a few quotes attributed to Rick Everitt (under a well-known alias) on Charlton Life just before the start of the season when the negative rumours of a financial meltdown were in full swing (much to the annoyance of the club, it appeared). Those quotes never really gave much away, but it was the lack of a denial that problems existed that resonated deeper with Charlton fans. I remember at the time thinking that it was odd that even writing under an alias, he allowed his name to be drawn into the scaremongering at the time. It just never seemed particularly wise unless he had another motive for doing so.

Perhaps that motive was the fact that Rick had already had visibility of things at Boardroom level he couldn't accept and has, once again, put the club and it's fans first at a personal cost to himself.

The one puzzling thing to all of this - and if I play devils advocate for just a small moment - is that if you take away those rumours (and that's all they are until proven as fact) I would struggle to criticise Jimenez and Slater. Don't forget it was us, the fans, who sang in unison 'We've Got Our Charlton Back' at the end of last season and I'd hate to think where we'd be had they not taken over the club and had the foresight to install Sir Chris as manager. Whilst the rumours of unrest continue, I have to deal with the facts.

Rick hinted yesterday that he may be about to resurrect the Charlton fanzine 'The Voice of The Valley', although as welcome as that would be to all those who enjoyed reading it (I had a few letters published myself), I do wonder what place a paper fanzine has in today's age of social media.

Anyway, chairman, managers and even players will come and go but thankfully chaps like Rick Everitt will always be Charlton. Next time I see him I will ask to shake him by the hand.